Exabeam, a cybersecurity company that analyzes activity logs and other data generated by computers and devices as it scans for potential threats, announced today that it raised $50 million in a Series D funding round.
San Mateo, CA-based Exabeam is one of the newer companies carving out a niche in a cybersecurity sector called SIEM, or security information and event management. These companies sell software that collects and organizes the reams of activity data flowing from machines—information that is scrutinized after or during a data breach to identify the cause.
Exabeam’s ambition is to catch up with San Francisco-based Splunk (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SPLK]]), which is one of the market leaders in SIEM, along with the likes of IBM and HPE. Splunk’s products are also used for non-security tasks, such as enhancing IT operations and providing business analytics. Splunk’s total revenue grew to more than $1.2 billion in the fiscal year ending January 1, when the company recorded a net loss of $259 million, according to its annual report.
Exabeam and its competitors are trying to keep pace with the expansion in machine-generated data due to the proliferation of mobile and connected devices, and also to handle the added security concerns that come when businesses shift computing tasks from in-house data centers to Web-based software.
Exabeam has created a pricing model designed to attract customers—under its flat fee structure, businesses can store an unlimited amount of data for analysis, without additional charges for extra bytes. The company says it has also extended its insider threat detection services to customer data held in Web-based storage facilities. With its new funding, Exabeam plans to advance such cloud services, and invest in sales efforts toward a global expansion.
Companies including Exabeam are deploying machine learning software to refine their analysis of network activity patterns so they can detect threats more quickly. Exabeam says it has also automated responses to malware attacks and other security incidents.
The company did not disclose its revenue, but says it is increasing its share of an SIEM market that it expects to reach $4.5 billion in 2019. Exabeam, founded in 2013, says it has more than 200 paying customers.
Exabeam’s Series D fundraising round was led by previous investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, joined by other returning backers Aspect Ventures, Cisco Investments, Icon Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and investor Shlomo Kramer.
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